Boy critically injured near Portlaoise Hospital waited almost an hour for ambulance
The boy was injured about a kilomtre from Portlaoise Hospital after he fell from an e-bike
A teenage boy who is in critical condition in hospital following an accident waited on the roadside for almost an hour for an ambulance to take him about a kilometre to hospital at the weekend.
13 year-old Thomas Crean Keogh and his 19 year-old cousin were on an electric bike which went out of control and crashed after driving over a speed bump at the Summerhill Roundabout on the Stradbally Road, on Saturday, June 20 at around 11pm.
Thomas’s family say he had to wait for 58 minutes on the side of the road with family members for an ambulance to arrive. His grandmother parked her car at the scene with flashing lights on to alert motorists to the accident.
Thomas’s aunt Orla Keogh said an ambulance arrived from Portlaoise and took the CBS Portlaoise student to the Midland Regional Hospital in Portlaoise where he was placed in an induced coma.
On Sunday morning at 7.15am he was taken to Temple Street Hospital in Dublin where he remains in critical condition with his parents Nigel and Leanne at his bedside.
Orla said Thomas and his cousin were returning from the graveyard where they had earlier visited the grave of his aunt, Sharon Crean, who was murdered in Mountmellick in December 2022. She said Thomas visits Sharon’s grave every day.
She couldn’t understand how the ambulance took so long to reach the scene of the accident. “I don’t understand how they waited that long…the child was left sitting on the road 58 minutes howling in pain,” she explained.
Orla is upset about some inaccurate and hurtful comments which have been posted online in the wake of the accident. She said “the comments are all wrong” and there was no other vehicle involved in the crash as the only car on the scene belonged to Thomas’s granny.
“There is people saying he was hit by a car,” she explained. She said Thomas’s granny arrived after the crash and put her hazard lights on to warn other motorists approaching the scene while the family waited for an ambulance but no other vehicle was involved in the crash.
Orla described her nephew as “lovable” and said “he is well known around by everyone. There is nobody that has a bad word to say about him.”
“He is just loveable like, a loveable little teddy bear,” Orla said.
When asked if there was anything people could do to help, Orla asked them to keep Thomas in their prayers during this difficult time.
The Leinster Express Laois Live contacted the HSE in relation to the accident. They stated that: “The HSE cannot discuss individual cases when doing so might reveal identifiable information, breaching our ethical duty of confidentiality.
The NAS(National Ambulance Service) works to deliver the highest standard of care for people using NAS services. NAS operates a nationally integrated deployment model that dispatches the nearest available ambulance to the most urgent calls, regardless of county boundaries.”
Gardaí issued an appeal for information following the crash. They said shortly after 11pm, emergency services and Gardaí attended the scene of a serious collision involving an e-bike on the N80, Stradbally Road, Portlaoise. A male passenger in his early teens sustained serious injuries and was taken to hospital. He is currently receiving treatment at CHI Temple Street where his condition is understood to be critical. The driver, an adult male in his late teens, received medical assessment at the scene. It’s understood no other vehicle was involved.
The scene has been examined by Garda Forensic Collision Investigators and the road has since reopened.
Gardaí are appealing to anyone who may have witnessed the collision to come forward. Road users who were travelling on the Stradbally Road in Portlaoise, from St Peter & Paul’s Cemetery to St Fintan’s Hospital, between 11pm and 11:30pm and who may have camera footage (including dash-cam), are asked to make this footage available to Gardaí.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Portlaoise Garda Station on (057) 867 4100, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111, or any Garda Station.